


No One's Stupid

by FeralScribe



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caduceus's Siblings are Kinda Mean, Child!Caduceus, Clay Family Flashback, Don’t copy to another site, Episode 69 spoilers, Gen, Mama Clay Wisdom, canon supplement, someone hug the firbolg please
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 15:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19479079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralScribe/pseuds/FeralScribe
Summary: As the Mighty Nein take a moment after escaping the King's Cage, Caduceus thinks back on a childhood memory.





	No One's Stupid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cinnabean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinnabean/gifts).



> (Originally from my [Tumblr](https://feral-renaissance-cat.tumblr.com/post/186014350329/no-ones-stupid), but cinnabean told me to post this here, so okay, done.)

It was an average day in the Blooming Grove. The air smelled of rain that might pass over their graveyard if it didn’t skirt them to the south, there were buds on the corrupted and healthy trees alike, and Mama Clay’s cooking was once again interrupted by the shouts of arguing children.

Four of them stormed into the kitchen. Well, three of them stormed, and caught up in their tempest was Caduceus, his ears folded back and eyes wide with apologetic confusion. Colton spoke up for the others. “Caddy ruined our fort _again!_ Can’t you tell him to leave us alone?”

“I didn’t mean it,” Caduceus said, his little voice soft and quavering. “I was trying to catch a beetle and it landed on the fort but when I went to grab it I tripped and fell.”

“You’re so _stupid,_ Cad,” Clarabelle chided.

Caduceus scrunched his face, ears flaring out defensively. “ _You’re_ stupid!”

“No _you’re_ stupid!”

“No _you_ –”

“Hey now,” Mama Clay said. She didn’t raise her voice but all four children fell silent. “No one’s stupid.” She knelt down and put her hand on Caduceus’s shoulder. “Caduceus, remember what we taught you: eyes and ears open at all times. You’re not just watching out for yourself, you need to be alert in case something happens to your siblings and you need to help them.” She stood back up, her brow furrowed enough to make her children’s ears droop. “That goes for all of you. Any one of you could have made that mistake, and the rest of you would be here trying to get me to punish them. This is why we have the buddy system. You stay together, you stay out of trouble. Let Caduceus help you make your fort, or one of you help him catch his beetles. Do you all hear me?”

“Yes, mother,” they chorused.

Mama Clay smiled. “Good. Run along and play nice. Dinner will be ready in a bit. Let the others know.”

“Okay.”

Before going out to play with his siblings, Caduceus ran up and gave his mother a hug. “Thank you,” he said.

She patted him on the head. “Don’t you worry, little bug. They were just upset. Be careful out there. And remember, _no one’s stupid_.”

* * *

Caduceus’s friends are suffering. They’re in mourning. They’re in danger. He kept his eyes and ears open, watching out for himself but watching out for them even more. He still couldn’t help Yasha. None of them could. He can see their pain etched in their faces, deepening as they try to think of what they could have done, how they could have prevented their mistakes. They all blame themselves. They aren’t thinking about the future, just the past. Beau is thinking about both. She has that stony look on her face like she’s trying hard to block out the pain and focus on moving forward.

“I don’t think this was all for nothing,” she says. “I know it feels shitty. I feel closer though. I don’t know…why…”

“Me too.” Caduceus knows they have to keep going. There are answers out there. There’s always an answer, always a way to help. They won’t find it if they all stay here beating themselves up for what they did or didn’t do. “And no one’s stupid,” he says. He tries to put the same power in his voice that his mother had, the one that made everyone listen, but he hears his own fear in the way he blurts it out. “Look at us. I mean, any one of us could have turned in there and we would all be saying ‘I told you so’.” They’re all closer and more trusting of each other than they were when Caduceus first met them, but he understands that they’ve all been betrayed at some point before and they’re all afraid it will happen again. This wasn’t betrayal. This was something none of them could have prevented because they simply didn’t know. They were chasing a beetle and not watching their feet. They tripped. Things fell. It happens. “No one’s stupid.”

They’re already in trouble. They need to stay together. Caduceus has to remind them all of what’s important. He has to remind them that it wasn’t any of their faults. It wasn’t his fault. He’s not stupid.

He’s not.


End file.
